


A Day in the City

by Awkward_Orca



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Aquarium visit, Banter, Established Relationship, Fluff, Keith is a mechanic, Lance is in college, M/M, Mild Sexual Humor, Multi, Shiro has a government job, Shklance Big Bang 2018, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, aged up a little, but I finished so pls enjoy, day trip, modern day AU, shklance - Freeform, shklance bb, this was so much work and half of it is barely edited
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-28
Updated: 2018-02-28
Packaged: 2019-03-25 04:46:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13826778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Awkward_Orca/pseuds/Awkward_Orca
Summary: Shiro, Keith, and Lance head into town on a rare day where they are all free for a visit to the aquarium. Their plan of going to their respective homes after getting dinner fall through though as distractions arise.This is part of the shklance big bang, so go check out some of the other works for it! It's been super fun to a part of something like this ^^ the art that my paired artists did for this is down at the bottom, they're so awesome





	A Day in the City

Lance’s phone dinged, a text from Shiro. _“We’re pulling up now.”_

He looked up, scanning the parking lot and immediately recognized Shiro’s old black pick-up truck, though based on how it barreled into a parking spot like the driver had no intention of stopping, Keith was probably the one behind the wheel.

Lance smirked as Shiro jumped out of the passenger side, pleased that his guess was correct. He waved from where he was standing by the ticket booths for the light rail.

“I don’t know how you managed to get a license,” Lance said as his boyfriends got closer, holding out the two extra tickets he’d bought for them.

“I don’t know how you manage to bring that up almost every time I drive,” Keith retorted as he took one of the offered tickets.

Lance rolled his eyes, kissing Keith’s cheek then Shiro’s. “I got us all round-trip tickets.”

“How much were they?” Shiro asked, looking down at his ticket.

“Not much, don’t worry about it.”

Shiro narrowed his eyes and walked over to the closest ticket booth, touching the screen to bring up ticket prices. Lance squeaked and scrambled to get to him in time, hugging Shiro from behind. “Don’t, you’re already bringing us to the aquarium,” he pleaded, trying to tug the other man away, which didn’t feel much different from trying to move a mountain.

“Cause I have a membership, it’s not costing me anything to bring you two.”

“I know, but still.”

“How bout you tell us, and then we can sneakily slip the amount into your bag later,” Keith suggested with a sly smile.

“It was only like, two dollars each, okay? It’s fine,” Lance protested, looking at Shiro with what he hoped were big puppy eyes.

Shiro smiled, ruffling his hair. “See? Not so hard to tell us. Let’s get to the boarding stop now.”

Lance blinked, processing what just happened before gasping and running after the other two as they crossed the tracks. “Blackmailers!” He shouted.

“That’s not what a blackmailer does. Blackmailing would be if I threatened to share that picture I have of you drooling on Shiro’s chest if you didn’t make me dinner,” Keith explained.

“You still _have_ that?” Lance cried, trying to grab Keith’s phone.

“Deleting it from his phone won’t erase it,” Shiro chuckled, watching Keith try to keep his phone out of reach as Lance stretched over him.

“What?! You have it too?”

“Obviously, I told him to send it to me as soon as he took it.”

“This is blackmail,” Lance whined.

“That’s what I said,” Keith grinned, turning his back and hugging his phone to his chest as Lance showed no signs of relenting.

“When does the light rail come? We didn’t miss it, right?” Shiro asked, pulling out his own phone to google the schedule as he ignored his boyfriends’ struggle.

“Uh, I don’t think so, if we did another one’ll come around soon,” Lance answered, resorting to tickling.

Keith shrieked, dropping his phone instantly and laughing while trying to push Lance’s hands away. With a triumphant “Ha!” Lance grabbed the phone and darted behind Shiro, clicking on the screen and tapping in the password. “Time to get rid of- oh my god, why are there so many pictures of me on here?”

“Cause you’re cute,” Keith said simply, walking over while recovering his breath.

“To be fair, you take even more of us,” Shiro pointed out as Keith leaned against him.

“Well, yeah, but those are good- there are just as many of Shiro on here too! And they all suck! How do you manage to make a man as beautiful as Shiro look like a literal potato?!” Lance exclaimed, staring at a fuzzy picture of what he believed was Shiro reading, but because of the blur and camera quality it looked like an oddly shaped vegetable with a weird haircut and book.

Keith crossed his arms indignantly. “Maybe I’m not the best photographer, but I don’t suck, don’t be rude.”

“I’m not being rude, I’m being honest. You took photography class for Pete’s sake, my little cousin could take better pictures than these, and she’s three!”

Shiro reached over Lance’s shoulder, plucking Keith’s phone from his hand and returning it to its rightful owner. “Alright, that’s enough, we don’t need to keep looking at Keith’s awful photo skills,” he teased.

“You too? Babe I thought you were on my side!” Keith pouted, holding onto Shiro’s hand.

“I’m always on your side, except when I’m on Lance’s,” he responded with a smile, kissing Keith’s knuckles.

“Ha, I win, I get the cuddle giant tonight,” Lance gloated, crossing his arms and smirking at Keith.

“No, we both get him, that’s why he’s a giant.”

“Absolutely not. Shiro, my love, it’s time to choose, either that weirdo with a sword kink, or me,” Lance declared, hugging Shiro’s prosthetic arm.

“No, I couldn’t possibly choose, don’t make me,” Shiro gasped dramatically, pulling both his arms from his boyfriends’ grips and draping one over his face.

“You’re gonna have to, the light rail only has rows of two and I am not sitting with Mr. Long Legs here,” Keith said with a grin.

“Excuse you, it’s _daddy_ long legs to you, mullet.”

“We both know the only one of us with daddy potential is snowball here.”

“Oh hey, the train is coming, let’s stop talking about this,” Shiro interrupted loudly, taking a step forward as the light rail pulled in and ignoring Lance and Keith’s giggling.

“I call window!” Lance said as they got on, sliding into a seat.

“Do you wanna sit with him or me?” Shiro asked Keith.

“You sit with him, I like the extra space for my bag,” he responded with a smile, sitting down behind Lance. “Plus, I get the window too.”

“Alright,” Shiro chuckled, sitting down next to Lance who grinned and bounced his legs.

“We gotta take a picture,” Lance said, pulling out his camera and holding it up. “Keith, get in.”

“Make sure you send these to me,” he said after sticking his tongue out for the picture.

“Only if you don’t take any awful ones of me today.”

“No promises.”

“Don’t you have enough?!”

“I can never have enough.”

Shiro smiled as Lance and Keith went back and forth, turning his head to watch the trees rush by. It had been a while since he’d spent a day out with his boyfriends. Normally, they would hang out at either Shiro’s place or Lance’s house and maybe go out for a meal. But with Lance in college and Keith and Shiro working full time, it was hard to make the time for and afford a full day in the city together. So, he was excited for this.

“Wait, what stop do we need to get off on?” Keith asked, craning his head back to see the map above the windows.

“The convention center, don’t worry I’m keeping track,” Lance responded, in the middle of typing something on his phone.

“You’re keeping _track_?” Shiro repeated with a cheeky grin.

Lance froze, staring straight ahead before groaning and dropping his head. “I can’t believe you,” he grumbled.

“Come on Shiro, lay off, he’s already on the rails,” Keith added, laughing and leaning away as Lance twisted around in an attempt to push him.

“I hate you both, why am I dating two pun nerds.”

“Cause we’re adorable,” Shiro said, tilting his head towards Lance with an innocent smile.

“Yeah, you got me there,” Lance sighed, “I must be a sap.”

“You totally are,” Keith agreed.

“Shut up! You’re supposed to disagree with me!”

“Now you’re just fishing for compliments,” the shorter boy giggled, trapping Lance’s hand in his own so he couldn’t be shoved again.

“I think that’s alright, he does deserve them after all,” Shiro said, smiling while watching Lance tap on Keith’s nails with his free hand.

“I guess you’re right,” Keith hummed, smirking while he refused to let go of Lance’s hand.

“Shiro help, he’s assaulting me.”

“Like you don’t like it.”

“Babes, come on, we can’t discuss Lance’s kinks in a public place like this,” Shiro interjected, resting his hand on his boyfriends’.

“Well what else are we gonna talking about then?” Lance grinned.

“We could play would you rather,” Keith suggested.

“That’s so lame.”

“You’re lame!”

Shiro laughed, “Lance, would you rather be a bus, bike, or ferry?” He asked before the other two said anything else.

“Really Shiro? You’re supposed to ask him something like, would he rather kiss you or me,” Keith sighed, rolling his eyes dramatically.

“No no, this shows character.”

“Yeah, I mean obviously I’d rather kiss Shiro, but this isn’t about who’s a better kisser,” Lance squinted, ignoring Keith’s offended gasp and thinking about Shiro’s question. “I’d rather be a ferry.”

“Okay, now you’re being the lame one,” Keith scoffed.

“What?! How? Ferries are cool!”

“Kids throw up on them all the time, you’d be covered in barf.”

“Not all kids are you,” Shiro said, smiling at the glare his boyfriend shot him.

“Wait oh my god, really?” Lance giggled. “You get seasick?”

“It was one time! It means nothing!”

“And I thought you were this big bad boy who had no weaknesses besides his gorgeous boyfriends,” Lance purred, pulling the shorter boy closer.

“Shut up!” Keith protested, turning his head to the side to hide the red spreading across his cheeks.

Lance giggled. “Alright, what would you rather be, if ferry is such a bad option?”

“Uh,” Keith blinked, staring at the ceiling. “A bike.”

“That’s the most boring option out of the three, babe,” Shiro teased.

“I can’t believe you’d betray me like this.”

“Yeah come on, Shiro, everyone knows Keith has a thing for bikes.”

“You know what else I have a thing for?”

After the two other boys made faces of curiosity, Keith continued. “Throwing annoying boyfriends out light rail windows.”

“Now that’s kinky,” Shiro laughed, holding up his hands as Keith tried to push him off his seat. “You’re so violent, try to relax babe.”

“Yeah, that much negative energy is bad for your skin. You’ll totally break out.”

“I hate you both.”

Lance giggled, turning to Shiro. “What would you choose then?”

Shiro tapped his chin in thought. “A bus.”

“Would you actually though or are you choosing the only one that hasn’t been taken yet?” Keith smirked, leaning on the backs of their seats.

“I would! Then I’d get to go all over a city and see a ton of different people, it’d be fun,” He explained.

“You’re all about exploring, can’t you ever settle down?” Keith hummed.

“You mean live in a dinky old shack in the desert?” Lance quipped with a grin.

“That was just for a year! I was taking a break!”

“Mhm, and remind me, how did you take a dump?”

Keith narrowed his eyes at Lance before turning to face the other way. Lance just snickered, pulling out his phone to check for notifications.

Even though he only had a few notifications – random alerts and a few social media things; unimportant stuff he ignored, Lance checked out of the conversation. He leaned his head against the window, watching trees speed by as the bumps from the tracks and cadence of his boyfriends’ voices lulled him into a sense of safety. It had been a while since he had allowed himself to relax and just enjoy the moment. The end of the semester was nearing and work was piling up, he didn’t have time to mess around.

Today was the exception.

He was going to relax and not think about school or work if killed him, dammit.

Keith and Shiro were talking about a new dance Keith was trying to learn. Apparently, it was a lot harder than Keith had anticipated. The slower moves required greater control of his body and used more muscle strength. Not that he lacked the necessary strength, it was just unexpected. Despite his complaints, it was clear that he was enjoying the challenge.

“Oh! Guys, we gotta make a video,” Lance interrupted loudly, bending down to pull his camera out of his bag.

Keith sighed but other than that didn’t complain and leaned in so he’d fit into the frame. “Okay, so, where are we going?” Lance asked as he clicked record and looked at the others.

“The aquarium,” Shiro answered, attempting to act normally but squinting at the camera and tensing his shoulders.

“Yup! Cause you’re such a sweet boyfriend and are gonna take us,” Lance hummed before turning his attention to Keith. “How are you feeling about this?”

Keith’s eyes darted between the camera and Lance as he tried to decide which one to look at. “Uh, fish. No, I mean, good. I’m feeling good about this. Come on, stop it,” He rolled his eyes as Lance slowly zoomed in on Keith’s face.

Lance laughed, stopping the recording and lowering his arm. “You two continue to be the worst on camera. I thought you’d improve with time, but sadly not.”

Keith pursed his lips, glaring at him. “It’s cause you ask awkward questions.”

“Nah, you just suck. Oh, Keith, did you bring the double headphone jack?” He asked, remembering what he’d made.

“What do I look like?” Keith twisted around to grab his back his backpack.

“A cutie,” Lance replied, smirking as Keith fumbled in shock from the unexpected compliment. “I made this great playlist, you two are gonna love it.”

“If it’s just remixes of Never Gonna Give You Up again, I’m not listening to it and I’m breaking up with you,” Shiro warned.

Lance grinned, suppressing a laugh. “Nah, not this time.”

“Good,” Keith handed him the jack. “I don’t think I can survive being forced to listen to anymore meme playlists.”

“For the last time, it’s pronounced _meme_ , like mean, not meh-meh! And _meme_ songs are better than the stuff you listen to,” Lance sighed, grabbing the offered jack in an exaggerated swipe.

Keith covered his mouth with a hand, but not before Lance saw his shit eating grin. “I knew you knew! Shiro, make him stop pronouncing it like that!”

“I don’t know what you mean, meh-meh sounds right to me.”

Lance threw up his arms, falling back against his seat. “I can’t believe that both of my boyfriends would betray me like this. I’m gonna leave you two for Pidge, at least they know how to pronounce things!”

“Oh god please no, I can’t imagine what it’d be like if you two hooked up,” Shiro mumbled, staring into the distance with a vague look of horror.

The Cuban boy grinned, nudging Shiro with his leg. “Like I could ever give up two boys as beautiful as yourselves.”

Keith hummed from behind him and draped an arm around his shoulders while tugging Shiro closer with his other arm. “Sap.”

Lance smiled, closing his eyes as Shiro rested his head against Keith’s, staying like that as the light rail bumped along.

“So, the playlist?” Keith asked after a few minutes, straightening slightly as the train slowed at a stop and a few people filtered on.

“Right!” Lance bounced up, clicking on his phone and plugging in the double head phone jack.

He scrolled through his playlists, humming softly to a song stuck in his head, before stopping on the one he wanted and taking Keith and Shiro’s earbud cords to plug them in. “Who’s sharing?” He asked, looking between the two.

“I can, since we’re sitting next to each other,” Shiro said, handing one earbud to Lance so they could all listen to the songs.

“You’re still watching the stops, right?” Keith asked, his hands paused, holding his earbuds in the air.

“Yeah, yeah, don’t worry, we’ve got like, four more stops,” Lance waved his hand, waiting for the paranoid boy to nod and put in his earbuds before hitting play.

The first song started playing and Lance let his eyes drift shut, tapping his fingers along to the beat on his legs. Most of the songs he had chosen were ones that the other two had already heard, but they loved finding out how Lance combined them with other songs.

Two stops later, some passengers got on, saturated in a certain overly sweet scent. Lance cracked a grin, opening his eyes and tilting his head closer to Shiro and Keith to whisper, “Someone smells dank.”

“Think they’ll give us a joint?” Keith asked, following the group with his eyes.

“I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, buying drugs off random passengers you meet on the light rail is not a good idea,” Shiro sighed, his eyes closed.

Lance squinted at the older boy. “When have you said that before?”

The only response he got was a small smirk.

“You can’t leave me hanging like that! Have you even said it before? Shiro!” Lance whined, shaking his boyfriend who was feigning sleep.

“Lance, which stop did you say we were getting off on?” Keith interrupted as the train screeched to a halt.

“Oh shit, this one, come on,” Lance lurched up, grabbing his bag and unplugging the headphones connected to his phone.

Keith scrambled to slide out of his row, hopping skipping the short distance to the exit and following Shiro out with Lance behind them.

Lance exhaled loudly, stretching his arms out. “This is such a great day for this,” He sighed with a smile. “I haven’t been to the aquarium in years! Are you excited Keith?”

He nodded seriously. “I’m gonna touch some fish balls.”

Lance and Shiro choked, freezing in their tracks and staring at the shorter boy walking to the crosswalk with determination.

“Keith, babe,” Lance whispered softly, holding a hand out.

“You can’t- I don’t think fish even have balls,” Shiro finished in an equally distressed tone.

Keith stopped, looking back at them. “What?”

There was silence for a moment before the other two cracked up, covering their mouths to try and smother their laughter, unsuccessfully.

Keith’s face flushed. “Shut up! How was I supposed to know?!”

Lance leaned on Shiro to keep from falling over. “How did you even get that idea? Have you ever seen a fish?”

“Of course I have! I used to have goldfish!” He paused as their laughter increased. “Shut up!”

“Wait- Keith, wait up,” Shiro called, jogging after the indignant boy with Lance in tow.

“We’re sorry, it just,” Lance paused to wipe his eyes. “That was so random.”

Keith turned his head away, though he had stopped walking. Shiro wrapped his arms around him, running a finger along his chin. “We didn’t expect you to say something like that kitten, forgive us?”

Keith’s face heated up at the affectionate term Shiro rarely used. “Yeah, fine,” He grumbled.

“You’re too kind,” Lance hummed, sliding his arms around Keith as well and planting a kiss on his cheek.

“And you’re assholes,” Keith retorted, leaning into Shiro and returning Lance’s kiss briefly.

Lance grinned, stepping away and tugging Keith’s shirt. “C’mon! Let’s go look at those nonexistent fish balls!” He shouted, spinning around and skipping across the road as the pedestrian signal lit up.

“Lance, I swear to god!” Keith pushed out of Shiro’s grasp to chase the other boy.

Shiro smiled, following them at a slower pace. He’d almost forgotten what it was like to hang out with his boyfriends when they weren’t exhausted from work and school.

On the other side of the road, Keith managed to grab Lance and pull him close, tickling him with one hand while holding the taller boy against him. “What were we gonna go see?” He growled, grinning as Lance shrieked in laughter, weakly attempting to get away.

“Sorry, sorry! I won’t mention your fish balls again!” Lance wheezed, fully aware of his phrasing.

“Not good enough,” Keith hummed, not releasing his grip.

“What do you want then? I’ll suck your dick, let me breathe!” Lance giggled, leaning over Keith’s arm.

Keith let go instantly, covering his mouth as he tried not to laugh, with little success.

“Why does it always come down to blow jobs with you two,” Shiro asked as he caught up.

“Like you don’t like it,” Lance rolled his eyes with a grin.

“And what do you mean ‘you two’?” Keith smirked.

Shiro sucked in his lips, glancing around. “Hush you two, I don’t want to be reported for disturbing the peace.”

“Sure, sure you don’t,” Lance purred, sidling over to Shiro. “Oh shit! Pokemon!” His head twisted to watch a bus drive by with a large Pokemon Go advertisement plastered on its side.

“They’re still advertising that? I thought it died ages ago?” Keith scoffed, crossing his arms and starting to walk.

Lance gasped in offense, following. “How could you! It’s not dead!”

“Just because you and Shiro still play doesn’t mean it’s not dead.”

“It’s on life support,” Shiro huffed, resting a hand over his heart in sorrow.

“Yeah, have some gosh darn respect. Oh! Shiro, did you ever get a Pikachu?”

“Nah, I changed my mind. He’s too overpowered.”

“What?!” Lance squeaked, jerking to a halt and staring at his taller boyfriend in betrayal.

Shiro held up his hands in defense. “It’s true! One pokemon shouldn’t have that much power. He’s at least over hyped.”

“I can’t believe my own boyfriend would hurt me like this,” Lance whispered.

Keith smiled, shoving his hands into his pockets and walking alongside the two boys now in a heated debate. He lifted his head, taking the time to look around as they traveled down the sidewalk. He rarely came into the city, and when he did it wasn’t for long, so he never got the chance to really look at the different buildings.

“That’s bullshit!” Keith shouted, interrupting the argument and pointing at a support beam that had spikes lining the top. “They put pokes up there so birds couldn’t perch!” He glanced at Shiro and Lance who were staring at him and his sudden outburst. “Sorry, I’m sorry, continue.”

The other two glanced up at the offending sight. “Yeah! It’s such crap! They also put spikes on places where homeless people could sleep!” Lance agreed, glaring up at the spikes.

“The government sucks,” Keith growled, stomping forward. “That’s exactly why I’m gonna organize the revolution.”

“Heck yeah, stick it to the man,” Shiro agreed loudly.

“Woo! Revolution!” Lance hooted, pumping his fist in the air.

Keith grinned at them. “I’m so glad my boyfriends support me.”

Shiro bumped into him gently with his arm, “How could we not? You’d be a great revolution leader.”

“Yeah, not to mention you’d look hella hot in leather tights,” Lance added.

“What? What does that have to do with this?” Keith asked, staring at Lance, dumbfounded.

“Cause, leaders of revolutions always wear tight leather clothes.” He explained simply.

Before Keith could figure out his reaction, Lance’s eyes widened. “Yo! Look at that bike riding other bikes! That’s the shit!”

Keith glanced around to see what Lance had shouted about, seeing a bike rack in the shape of a bike with a couple actual bikes tied to it. “Dude,” He breathed. “That is so cool.”

“We should steal it,” Shiro suggested.

“Okay how did you _not_ get kicked out of school when you say that kinda stuff?” Keith sighed in exasperation.

“Cause I never got caught,” He replied with a sly grin.

“That is not fair,” Keith grumbled, speeding up and knocking into Lance as he passed the other boy.

“Ah! I’m hurt!” He shouted, stumbling to a stop and covering his face with the back of his hand.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean-” 

“No, it’s too late,” Lance gasped, interrupting Keith’s apology. “Go on without me, my wounds are too great.”

“Lance, I’m sorry.”

“How could you injure me like this?”

Keith sighed before stepping closer and bowing dramatically, taking Lance’s “injured” hand and kissing it. “Is that better?”

Lance was frozen with a beat red face, too shocked to do anything but stare. Keith’s face slowly flushed as the seconds ticked on with Lance not saying anything.

“My god, you can practically see the sexual tension. Babes, don’t have eye sex in public,” Shiro said with a chuckle.

“You know, eye sex is an actual thing,” Lance perked up, looking at Shiro.

“I wish I was surprised that you know about something like that,” Keith groaned, standing up.

Lance grinned, starting to walk again. “You’re not surprised anymore? I’ll have to come up with something big now.”

“Please don’t,” Shiro pleaded, remembering the last time Lance had come up with something “big.”

He hummed, tapping his chin. “I’ll think about it.”

“Is that it?” Keith asked, raising his hand to point at an asymmetrical glass building a few blocks away.

The other two looked at him. “By ‘it,’ do you mean the aquarium?” Shiro asked.

Keith nodded, narrowing his eyes at their grins. “Don’t laugh! I never come into the city, you know that!”

“Yeah but Keith, this is the _aquarium_ , the _national aquarium_ , how do you not know?” Lance asked, holding a hand over his mouth in an attempt to hide his smile.

“I dunno, how did you not know that Pluto was real?” Keith shot back.

Lance sputtered, not expecting to have one of his most embarrassing misconceptions brought up. “Well- you, that’s not fair!”

“Life’s not fair kid,” Keith sighed, pretending to hold a cigarette and staring into the distant.

Lance shoved Keith with his shoulder. “Okay okay, calm down grandpa,” He chuckled, rolling his eyes.

“Hey, respect your elders!”

“Fuck you I do what I want.”

“That’s no language for a young’un,” Shiro joined in, smirking at Lance’s glare.

“Yeah, watch your fucking language, youngster” Keith grinned.

“I’m only a few months younger than you Keith! Shiro’s the oldie,” Lance exclaimed, turning away as Shiro clutched his chest in mock injury.

“How could you say that?” The older man gasped.

“Cause I’m a bad boy,” Lance snapped open his sunglasses and slid them on before finger gunning.

The other two’s faces split into grins as they burst into laughter. Lance grinned as well, thinking that he could live solely off his boyfriends’ laughter. “You guys are beautiful,” He hummed, taking each of their hands and kissing them,

Keith’s face flushed and he quickly averted his gaze as Shiro smiled broadly, pulling Lance’s hand to his lips a placing a kiss on his knuckles too. “So are you.”

Lance chuckled, tightening his grip on their hands and tugging them into walking again. “We can’t stand here complimenting each other all day, I wanna get some pics of you two with fish!”

While walking past the trade center, small groups of people and ducks passed them, but the sidewalks were generally clear. One of the benefits of going in the middle of a weekday. In the area in front of the aquarium, groves of trees were set up in elevated concrete plots and sounds of different birds were being played.

With the asymmetrical building leaning overhead, Lance could already detect the faint smell of water and fish that only seemed to exist in aquariums.

“Lance, where are you going?” Shiro called as the boy in question started heading towards the ticket booths.

He paused, glancing back at them and Shiro held up his membership card. “Oh! Right! I was just uh, testing you.”

“Sure,” Shiro hummed with a smile while rolling his eyes, walking to the members entrance.

The roar of a waterfall filled the entrance, but thanks to a rock archway, none of the three could see the source. While Shiro went to get their tickets, Lance tugged Keith’s arm. “Go over to those rocks, I’ll get a pic.”

“What?”

“C’mon, we gotta document this!”

Keith sighed but complied, following Lance into the archway and standing in front of the fake rocks while Lance took out his camera. “You gotta pose babe,” He instructed, looking at Keith over the top of the camera.

Keith lifted his arms slightly, not sure how to pose. He resorted to crossing his arms and leaning back with what he hoped was a dashing smile. Lance chuckled, the shutters clicking a few times. “Okay, try a different pose now.”

“Isn’t that enough?”

“Nope,” Lance glanced up at Shiro has he came over with the tickets. “Go help him pose.”

Shiro nodded, walking up to Keith and hefting him up in bridal style. Keith gasped, clinging to Shiro’s neck and glancing down as the floor dropped away. “Don’t hit me on the wall,” He warned, glaring at the rocks inches away from his face.

“I could never do that,” Shiro said with a grin, pressing a kiss to his cheek.

“Perfect!” Lance shouted, turning his camera off and putting it back in his bag.

“What? How many pictures did you get?” Keith asked, hopping down as Shiro lowered him.

“Like, five, I’ll show you later. You got the tickets Shiro?”

He nodded, pulling out three strips of paper from his pocket. “Woah, is that a shark on that one?” Lance asked, leaning against Shiro to look at the animal on each ticket.

“I call it,” Keith piped up, grabbing it before anyone else.

“What? No fair! I saw it first!”

“He called it babe, here you can have,” Shiro squinted at the fish on the other ticket. “I think this one’s a bass or something.”

“That is so lame, why can’t I have the octopus?”

Shiro grinned, holding the ticket with an octopus printed on it close to his chest. “Cause I like it.”

“You’ll just have to be faster next time,” Keith smirked, trotting off.

“You’ll just have to be faster next time,” Lance mocked in a high-pitched voice, following. “I’ll be faster with your mom!”

He froze as he exited the stone archway, looking up at the waterfall. Keith was staring at it with a similarly shocked expression at the water thundering down into the large tank in front of them, filled with a school of fish.

“I can feel the spray,” Keith said after a minute, blinking drops of water from his eyelashes.

“Kinda amazing that there are bigger ones that occur naturally, huh?” Shiro asked.

The other two nodded before Lance jerked out of his reverie. “Babes, smile!” He called while yanking out his camera.

Keith spun around, spreading his arms and grinning while Shiro beamed and held up a peace sign. Lance laughed, staring at the resulting picture. He very rarely could get a picture of Keith being genuine and not self-conscious and Shiro didn’t usually smile so wide for pictures. Lance stepped closer, holding the camera up and smiling for the group selfie.

“Rad, I’m gonna frame all of these.”

“Send them to me,” Shiro requested, resting his chin on Lance’s head as he clicked through the pictures.

“Me too,” Keith added.

“Obviously. Let’s go!” Lance hopped forward, speed walking towards the entryway. A staff member met them in front of a green screen with a camera. “Would you like to have your picture taken?” She asked.

Keith started to shake his head but Lance interrupted. “Yeah!”

“You’re gonna be taking pictures all day though,” Keith objected, glancing at the lady and forcing a small smile before glancing back at Lance.

“They won’t have all of us in them unless it’s a selfie though, this is much better. Besides, the more the merrier!” He explained merrily.

Keith sighed and Shiro nudged him. “It won’t take long, and he makes a good point.”

“Fine!” Keith threw his hands up in defeat. “Let’s do this then.”

“What background would you boys like?” The staff asked.

“Hm, let’s see what you’ve got,” Lance strolled over to look at the options. “You cool with turtles?”

Shiro glanced at Keith. “I dunno, they seem pretty shell-fish,” He said, smirking.

“Nope, no, if you make any more puns I’m gonna throw myself into the shark tank,” Lance promised as he nodded to the lady before walking back to his boyfriends.

“That doesn’t sound too bad,” Keith commented while Shiro laughed.

“You guys are so mean to me, I’m gonna cry. Okay, line up, you’re both gonna hold me,” Lance instructed, getting over his offense quickly.

“What kinda pose are you planning,” Keith asked skeptically, holding Lance’s legs anyway as Shiro picked him up.

“A great one,” Lance straightened one leg out, wrapping an arm around Shiro’s neck for support.

“Alright. 3, 2, 1, smile!” The staff member counted down.

Lance made a kissy face, Shiro smiled, and Keith lifted one corner of his mouth. “Perfect,” She said, smiling and pulling up the picture.

Lance hopped down and ran over with Shiro and Keith behind him. “Can we have three copies?” Shiro asked, looking up at her.

“Sure, give me a minute and I’ll print them out.”

“Awesome, how much?” Lance asked, reaching to grab his wallet.

“None, they come with the tickets.”

“Even better,” Lance grinned at his boyfriends, bouncing while the pictures slowly slid out of a slot.

Keith smiled as Lance gave them each one. “This is cute.”

“Just like you,” Shiro said.

“That’s some cheesy ass shit, babe,” Lance huffed.

“Says the one who randomly calls us beautiful,” Keith commented, starting to walk and holding out his ticket to get scanned.

“That is me being romantic, not cheesy, thank you very much,” Lance explained with a dramatical sweep of his arm.

“I don’t see why it can’t be both.” Shiro chuckled.

“Wait!” Lance shouted, holding up his hands as his boyfriends jumped in shock. “Before we start anything, does anyone need to go to the bathroom?”

The two stared at him for a moment before sighing. “Really Lance? You’re not our mom,” Keith said with a roll of his eyes.

“Look, I have had too many trips interrupted by siblings needing to go to the bathroom. I just wanted to make sure,” He explained indignantly. “So, either of you need to take a leak?”

Shiro shrugged. “It wouldn’t hurt,” He said before heading towards the bathroom.

Lance crossed his arms and smirked at Keith, who sighed loudly and walked over to a nearby bench to flop down onto it moodily.

After Shiro returned, the three of them climbed the escalator, pausing at the top in front of the reconstruction of a shark jaw.

“I believe there’s an Australian exhibit,” Shiro started, looking around for a sign. “Yeah, it’s upstairs. You guys wanna do that first or the main stuff?”

Lance gasped, covering his mouth. “Do they have kookaburras in the Australian one?”

“This is an aquarium, not a bird place,” Keith said.

“They might, I’m not sure,” Shiro answered with a pointed look at Keith who smiled innocently.

Lance nodded, rubbing his chin and looking between the escalators rising above them and the hallway to their left.

“Well, I wanna see the crazy Australian fish,” Keith decided, starting towards the escalator. 

Shiro glanced at Lance before following. “Sounds good.”

They followed Keith to the second escalator, Lance leaning over the side and looking down. At the top, one wall was covered with a grid of various pictures. Keith tilted his head, staring at it. “What’s this?”

“Um, something for water, I think,” Lance suggested, pointing at a quote about the importance of water. “But more importantly- this is great a photo op, it’s a wall!”

“You’re a wall,” Keith grumbled.

“Yeah, yeah,” Lance shoved his camera into Shiro’s hands. “Take some pics of me please.”

Shiro smiled, switching the camera on. “Don’t have to ask me twice.”

Lance grinned, hopping across the short distance and spreading his arms above him with an equally wide grin. Once he had posed a few times, he held out a hand to Keith. “C’mere!”

Keith’s eyes widened but Lance didn’t give him the chance to question the offer before he grabbed his camera-shy boyfriend, pulling him over. The resulting pictures were all of a flustered Keith and laughing Lance.

“Come on, we should go look at the actual exhibits, that’s what we came here for,” Keith eventually said, hiding a smile as he stepped away.

“I dunno, I doubt anything could top you two,” Shiro hummed.

“No, he’s right, I wanna see all the cool water things,” Lance said, stepping towards Shiro to get his camera.

“We can start with those,” Keith pointed at two small tanks at the end of the picture wall.

“Those look boring though,” Lance huffed.

“No water thing is boring, haven’t you learned that already?” Shiro teased, nudging Lance as they walked over.

“No, see! This is just some weird lizard and a few- um, weird swimmy things,” Lance squinted leaning closer to the glass of the second tank to get a better look at the small creatures swimming around.

“If they’re so boring why are you taking a picture?” Keith asked while Lance lifted up his camera.

“Cause they’re weird.”

“I like this lizard,” Shiro said, his attention on the first tank. “He looks relaxed.”

“I wanna be his bro,” Keith agreed.

“Oh my god,” Lance groaned, straightening up and starting to walk away, “That’s it, you’ve ruined this whole day, good bye, it was nice knowing you guys, I’m gonna throw myself off this bridge- oh my god!”

Keith and Shiro’s head jerked up at Lance’s shout. He was standing on the bridge just to their right, staring towards one side with his mouth open. When Shiro and Keith joined him, their eyes widened.

The waterfall that they had seen the bottom of at the entrance was pouring over rocks and down to the pool below. “I fucking love waterfalls,” Lance breathed.

“I wonder how much it cost to set something this big up,” Shiro mused.

“Look!” Keith exclaimed, leaning against the rail. “You can see how rounded and smooth the rocks are from the water! Erosion!”

Once again, Lance insisted on more pictures before progressing to the Australian exhibit. Much to his delight, there were several species of birds to look at, including the kookaburra. While Lance talked to an attendant about the birds, Keith tried to get the birds to repeat a kookaburra song. His attempts did not succeed.

Despite the Australian exhibit being short, Shiro drew it out for as long as possible by spending at least five minutes, often ten, at each tank to look at every fish. Lance appreciated this, taking the time to get better quality pictures of both his boyfriends and the fish.

“Oh, oh! I know this one!” Lance shouted, pointing at one of the last tanks which came up to shoulder height and had an open top.

“You realize there’s more than one type of fish in there?” Keith asked with an amused look.

“Well _duh_ of course I know, but I mean the one that there’s more of!”

“The striped ones?” Shiro clarified.

Lance nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah, they’re archer fish, they spit bugs out of the air for food!”

Keith scoffed. “That’s not possible.”

“Yeah it is, I had a book about a bunch of weird fish when I was little!”

“Refraction would make their aim terrible, they couldn’t possibly survive off-” He stopped short in what he was saying as one archer fish spat at a fly, making it drop into the water. “Woah, dude that’s so cool! How it’d do that?”

Lance smirked triumphantly as Shiro and Keith stepped closer to stare at the school, waiting for another fish to repeat the bug hunting technique.

Once they left the Australian exhibit and returned to the floor below, they bypassed an informational talk and went directly into a hallway filled with tubes off water that would periodically release bubbles. Lance gasped, giddy from the photo potential. Shiro and Keith were just as excited, Keith only offering minimal complaints as Lance insisted on making a video.

In the following room was the coral reef exhibit. Walkways were suspended around the sides as masses of various fish made their way over the coral and sand beds. Sharks drifted below stingrays while schools of fish flitted about. Shiro giggled, watching one fish swim on its side along the surface. Lance clicked on a small display screen, looking at the different fish and trying to spot them in the exhibit.

“This is so awesome,” Keith breathed, leaning against Shiro as they stared at the water below them.

“Holy sh- a turt! Turtle! There’s a turtle!” Shiro gasped suddenly, nearly plunging headfirst into the water as he pointed at a sea turtle drifting out from the shadow of a walkway. “Oh my god it’s adorable.”

“It’s missing a fin,” Keith commented.

Shiro’s eyes widened as he noticed the lack of one of the turtle’s fins. “That’s Calypso,” Lance chimed in, skipping over from the screen he’d been at. “She’s like you, Shiro!”

Shiro smiled, absentmindedly touching his prosthetic. “I guess she is.”

The other two smiled, watching Shiro’s expression.

“Should we move on?” Keith asked after a few minutes, glancing around at the people around them. “Is there a time limit for how long we stay here?”

“Uh, I don’t think so,” Shiro responded, straightening up. “But I would like to see the other exhibits too. Ready Lance?”

Lance jerked his head up from looking at the pictures he’d just taken. “Yeah! Let’s go!”

On the escalator to the next floor, Lance took a short video of them going up it, focusing on Shiro’s face as he stared at the pictures of various bodies of water on the ceiling.

“Is this an information section?” Keith asked, looking at the fake sand dunes and walls covered in facts.

“Uh,” Lance glanced around before pointing. “Nope! There’s tanks!”

“I think those are touch tanks,” Shiro said, shoving his hands into his pockets.

“Really?” Keith took a few steps forward, looking around the people milling in small clusters around the tanks.

“Ooh they didn’t have that last time I was here! Let’s do it!” Lance said, bouncing up and down.

“What’s in them?” Keith asked Shiro, looking skeptical.

“Some rays and horseshoe crabs.”

Keith shuddered, stepping back. “Yeah uh, I think I’ll just watch.”

“You don’t like rays?” Shiro looked at Keith in surprise.

“Not… necessarily, or horseshoe crabs.”

“What? C’mon, just try it, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity man!” Lance grinned, tugging Keith’s arm.

“I don’t think this is gonna be the only time I’m in an aquarium,” He sighed, rolling his eyes.

“You don’t know that! You might be shot off into space tomorrow! Or get lost in the mountains, life is unpredictable.”

Keith glanced at the touch tank as Lance pulled him closer, watching a ray glide across the sand before stopping and burrowing its wings into the sand. “I’ll touch a ray, but that’s it. Horseshoe crabs are the devil’s goblins.”

Shiro covered his mouth as he laughed. “Really? We used to play with them when we were kids!”

“No, you would pick them up and chase me around with them!”

Lance gasped, looking between the two. “Childhood drama!”

Shiro smirked, looking away. “I don’t remember that.”

“Liar! I can see that smug little grin!”

Lance chuckled, turning on his camera and handing it to Keith. “Here, hold this while I touch the sea pancake.”

Keith huffed, shooting Shiro one last accusatory glance before taking the camera and watching Lance dunk his hand into the water towards a small ray. “Make sure to avoid the two circles on its head, those are its gills,” an attendant advised.

Lance nodded, hesitating before brushing his fingers along the spine. He giggled, repeating the motion. “How does it feel?” Shiro asked, leaning on Keith.

“Like a di- uuh, it’s squishy! Kinda, not the spine,” Lance said with a grin.

He jumped as the ray decided that was enough and swam out of reach in a cloud of sand. “You guys gotta try this, it’s so fun,” He insisted, moving to a horseshoe crab.

Shiro nodded, stepping up next to Lance and sticking his hand in next to Lance’s, both resting their fingers on the horseshoe crab’s shell. Keith shivered, watching them. “That’s gross.”

“Dude it’s like touching a rock, come on, face your fears!” Lance insisted, straightening up and shaking his arm clear of water.

“I face my fears when they restrict me in life, horseshoe crabs do no such thing.”

“It’s restricting you now,” Shiro pointed out with a large grin.

Keith stared at the horseshoe crab with disgust before sighing in defeat and going to stand next to Shiro, handing Lance’s camera back. Lance immediately switched on the device, starting a video and focusing on Keith. “Ready to touch the bane of your childhood?”

Keith glared at the lens. “Screw off.”

“Babe, this is a momentous moment, at least tell us what’s on your mind?”

“Something like ‘I can’t believe I’m about to touch a shit filter’,” He grumbled.

Shiro chuckled, guiding Keith’s hand down to the horseshoe crab. “I hope this makes up for teasing you with these things,” He said, batting his eyelashes.

“I think is just making it worse,” Keith ground out between his teeth. “Jesus! It’s disgusting!”

“You haven’t touched it yet,” Lance said.

Keith blinked, opening one eye. “Oh.”

Shiro smiled, moving their hands again. Just as Keith’s fingers brushed against the shell, the horseshoe crab twitched and scuttled away. Keith shrieked, jumping back and yanking his hand out of the water. “It tried to eat me!”

Shiro laughed, holding his stomach while Lance pressed a hand over his mouth and leaned back against a pillar behind him. “Keith, it wasn’t trying to eat you!”

“Says you!”

Lance giggled, turning off his camera. “Ready to touch the ray then?”

“Hell no! I’m never putting my hand in ocean water again!”

“What about when we go to the beach?”

Keith froze, staring at the ground. “Maybe I’ll make an exception, but other than that, never again.”

Shiro slapped his hand against Keith’s shoulder, making him grimace as Shiro had yet to dry that hand off and water dripped onto his shirt. “Let’s move on then.”

“Aw but I wanted to touch another ray,” Lance pouted while Keith nodded and started walking away.

“I’m sure there will be many more rays for you to touch in the future,” Shiro comforted, nudging Lance along.

“Oh my god,” Keith whispered, spinning around and grabbing both his boyfriends. “They have jellyfish guys!”

“What?!” Lance squeaked, standing on his toes and seeing the long tank on the other side of the room with people crowded around it. “Holy crow that is awesome!”

Shiro’s eyes widened and it took him a moment to realize his boyfriends had left him to wait for a turn at the jellyfish tank.

“They’re so cute,” Keith cooed, staring at the swarm of moon jellyfish gently bobbing and bouncing against each other.

“I didn’t know you had such a thing for jellies,” Lance teased, nudging Keith.

“Shut up, I can’t help it, they’re so bumbly.”

Lance grinned, looking to the attendant at this tank. “How do we touch these?”

“Just wait until one gets close to the surface and then gently touch their tops,” The old lady explained with a smile.

Lance nodded, and Keith shot his hand out as he noticed a jellyfish top nearby. He giggled, stroking it slowly until it sunk out of reach. “It feels like wet jello.”

Shiro shivered as he joined them. “Uh, what would happen if we touched the stingers?” He asked the attendant.

“Well, moon jellyfish are harmless to humans, since they use their stingers on microorganisms, so you wouldn’t feel any sting, but you could hurt them, so only touch their tops,” She said, turning quickly to stop a younger child from splashing the water.

Shiro sighed in relief. “Okay, that’s not too bad I guess.”

“Do you not like jellyfish?” Keith asked with large, sad eyes.

Shiro coughed, glancing away. “Um, it’s not so much that I don’t like them, I just, don’t like electrocution…” He trailed off, rubbing the back of his neck.

Keith snorted, a smile replacing the fake pout. “I’m gonna get you a jellyfish lamp then.”

“I would love anything from you,” Shiro replied smoothly.

Keith’s face flushed and as he started to open his mouth in response, Lance shouted from behind him.

“Oh my god! They feel so funny!”

Keith spun around, grinning. “Right?”

“I just wanna squeeze ‘em,” He mumbled, clenching his fists.

“Maybe best to not do that,” Shiro suggested, resting his hand on Lance’s lower back.

“Yeah, yeah,” Lance sighed, waving the hand that wasn’t soaked. “Always the realist.”

“Someone needs to keep you from floating off into the clouds,” Shiro glanced at Keith who was leaning over the jellyfish and waiting with a poised hand for one to come close to the surface. “Keith, you ready to move on?”

“Just one more and I will be.”

While Keith stood there, Lance turned on his camera and quietly snapped a few photos, before squatting down in front of the glass side of the tank to get some pictures of the moon jellyfish without any glare or ripples from the surface. As he stood up, Keith bounced over with a grin. “Alright, let’s go.”

“Do you think there’s a sink we can wash our hands in?” Shiro mused out loud, right as he spotted a sink along the wall.

“Convenient,” Keith said, squinting at the sink with suspicion.

“They’ve probably rigged it, so the water slowly melts your skin,” Lance suggested with a nudge.

Shiro nodded. “Yup. Your hands will start decomposing in 70 years.”

Keith snorted, looking over at his taller boyfriend. “You really think I’ll live another 70 years?”

He nodded, walking over to the sink and turning on a faucet. “Yup, both of you.”

“Not me,” Lance declared as he started rubbing water up to his elbow. “I’m gonna go out in a blaze of glory, maybe saving a maiden from a fireworks accident, like the villain in _Mulan_.”

“The villain in _Mulan_ was the Hun leader, Shan-Yu,” Shiro reminded Lance slowly.

He froze, staring straight ahead for a second before shrugging and turning off the faucet. “If Shan-Yu wants to be a maiden and get rescued, who am I to say no to his dreams.”

“Okay Lover Boy,” Shiro sighed with a smile. “Let’s go look at more fish.”

“Sweet, I love fish,” Lance said, grinning and looping his arms around Shiro’s and Keith’s to tug them along.

The following hallway was lined with tanks of varying sizes. While Lance tried to get a good picture of some gars that refused to stay still, Keith watched an electric eel on the opposite side of the hallway glide around his tank. Shiro wandered ahead, and was found watching seahorses next to four smaller tanks at the end of the hallway.

“What’s in here?” Keith asked as he stared into a seemingly empty tank with a small pile of coral and rocks leaning against the back of the tank.

“Uuh,” Shiro leaned back to look at the list of creatures being displayed. “It might be a mantis shrimp.”

“Mantis shrimp?!” Lance jumped up from filming a couple small fish and an urchin. “Where?! I love mantis shrimp!”

“Here, I think,” Keith said while stepping aside for his enthusiastic boyfriend.

Lance squinted, stretching his neck to see into what he believed was a hole behind the rocks. Suddenly he gasped, covering his mouth and grinning. “I can see its eyes! Oh my god, look, look guys!”

Lance’s two boyfriends squished their faces against his to see the light purple, almost speckled looking eyes sticking up from the darkness of the hole. “Why is that so cool?” Keith asked skeptically, glancing at Lance.

“Dude it has like, fifteen more cones than we do!”

“Cones?” This time Shiro was the one looking at Lance.

“Yeah! Like, the cones in our eyes! It can see colors we could never even imagine! Isn’t that awesome!?”

Shiro looked back at the eyes with new appreciation, nodding in agreement. As Lance started up his camera again, the mantis shrimp twitched, then fluidly swam up and out into the open, showing of myriad of colors decorating its body. Lance started sputtering, fumbling to start a video while smacking Keith’s arm in excitement. “Look look look! Oh my god! He’s so pretty!”

“Dude,” Keith said softly, his eyes widening. “That is like the mascot of gay.”

Lance snorted. “So glad that’s in the video.”

“Wait what?! Turn that off!” Keith squawked, shoving Lance’s arm.

He responded with a screech that was broken short by a voice crack and Shiro promptly smacked both their heads lightly. “Don’t be so loud!”

“Yes, _mom_ , we wouldn’t want to disturb all the fish,” Keith mocked, rolling his eyes.

Shiro sighed, rolling his eyes but smiling anyway. Lance exhaled, still filming the mantis shrimp. “I think he’s posing,” Shiro commented.

Lance nodded. “This mother fucker knows how beautiful he is.”

After a few moments of the mantis shrimp slowly moving around and showing off all his angles, he slid back behind the rocks and into his burrow, his eyes barely visible once again.

“That was,” Lance inhaled and closed his eyes, turning his face upwards. “The single most coolest thing I have ever, and will ever, experience.”

“What if you got to see one in the wild?” Keith questioned.

He immediately regretted posing the hypothetical as Lance choked on air and almost pushed him over. “That would be fucking awesome!”

Shiro laughed, stabilizing Keith as he tried to regain his balance. “Get your scuba license and go find one then.”

“Man, you know I would love to do that,” Lance groaned, his head drooping back. “But that stuff is expensive, and I am but a poor college student.”

“Doesn’t VU offer scuba classes?” Keith asked as he started walking towards the escalator, remembering the classes he saw during his brief time there.

“Yeah, but there’s extra charges for gear and lab fees and all that not included in tuition. Allura took it and said the gear alone was around 200.”

Shiro winced. “Yeah, maybe wait until you inherit some mass of wealth after an obscure family member’s death.”

“We can’t all be as lucky as you, babe,” Keith sighed with a cheeky smile.

“Crap, I thought I had kept the secret that I’m a billionaire,” Shiro responded monotonously.

“Nope, can’t pull the wool over our eyes,” Lance chimed in, looking back at them from leaning over the side of the escalator that stretched across the coral reef exhibit that they saw first.

“Hey, how far up is this?” Keith asked, turning around to look down with Lance.

“I dunno, high.”

“It would be a shame,” Keith started slowly, placing his hand on Lance’s back, “If someone were to push you.”

Lance reeled back, shoving Keith into Shiro. “Don’t you dare! I don’t wanna be eaten by sharks!”

Keith giggled deviously, stepping away from Shiro as they got to next level. “I’m sure you’d be fine.”

“Yeah, Calypso would save you,” Shiro agreed.

“For some reason I doubt that,” Lance huffed with an eye roll.

In the next hallway, the trio was greeted with a large, dimly lit tank. After reading the list of fish on display, Lance began looking for the green moray eel. After a minute of no success, Keith wandered over to a much smaller tank that had a dragon moray, which was not only significantly smaller but also easier to find. Rockfish were also hidden throughout that tank, and Shiro and Keith began to see who could find more. Their game was interrupted as Lance started calling for them to come back as the green moray had decided to reveal itself and was swimming across the front of the tank serenely.

Once the green moray had returned to its hiding spot in a pipe, and Lance was satisfied with the video and pictures he’d gotten, they walked on to the next tank which was a tropical reef. There was a brief argument on if the clown fish was Marlin or Nemo, but before a winner could be decided, the three boyfriends got distracted by spotting impossibly tiny fish hidden along the bottom of the tank. They were so small, Lance had to manually focus his camera to get a single good picture.

After being dazzled by the colors and shapes of the different fish and anemones, and an astute observation from Keith that many of the anemones looked like buttholes, they got onto the next bridge escalator.

“I love puffins!” Lance said as soon as they reached the next floor, running over to the first exhibit.

“You’ve said that about almost every animal you’ve seen,” Keith commented.

“C’mon babe, he’s got a lot of love to give, let him live,” Shiro said, patting Keith’s shoulder.

The darker haired boy thought for a moment before nodding. “I guess, puffins are great too, I love them for cereal.”

Lance spun around, making a noise that was both a gasp and a screech. “How could you say that?! They might hear!”

“Why’s that a problem? They should be flattered to hear how great of a breakfast they make.”

“Now Keith,” Shiro interjected, much to Lance’s relief. “They wouldn’t be flattered, they’d be _flap_ -ered.”

Lance groaned, throwing his hands up and turning away. “You’re both the worst!”

At the next tank, the three of them stood shoulder to shoulder, watching the fish drift between tall stalks of kelp.

“I’d like to live in a kelp forest,” Keith said.

“Ew, why? It’s all slimy,” Lance responded while sticking his tongue out in disgust.

“It’s good cover.”

“The starfish look like fucked up pancakes,” Shiro noted, not following the conversation.

After that, the hallway wall was completely glass and stretched to the end of the hall. This rainforest exhibit had water fill up about half of the available space while plants and trees took up the rest.

Keith giggled, looking at a large fish staring at the glass and barely moving. “This guy looks like a drowned corpse.”

Lance raised an eyebrow, side-eyeing Keith. He was pretty used to his boyfriend’s darker sense of humor but sometimes he’d say something that just threw Lance off. Shiro, on the other hand, leaned closer to the glass to examine the fish, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “I agree, its eyes are almost glossed over.”

“His scales look more like bloated skin,” Keith added.

“Okay,” Lance held his hands up. “I’m gonna move along while you two have a gore fest.”

“’Kay, bye-bye,” Keith called, seeming to have gotten trapped in a staring contest with the fish.

Shiro waved as well, though he was moving his attention to other creatures in the tank. While those two took their time looking at the fish, Lance took his time getting pictures and attempting to convince the alligator to come closer to the glass; an endeavor that failed.

“Hey, piranhas,” Keith said loudly as he wandered away from the exhibit.

In an alcove on the wall was two different kinds of piranha skulls with some information printed on a sign next to them. Lance craned his neck from where he was squatting on the floor for a photoshoot with a stingray. “Piranhas?”

“Yeah, their teeth are sick,” Keith tilted his head, examining the skulls.

“Not as sick as a shark’s, did you see that megalodon jaw reconstruction earlier?” Lance hefted himself up, joining Keith in front of the piranha skulls.

“Yeah but look as this shit, they’re so pointy.”

“Pointy? You talking about Lance’s dick?” Shiro chimed in as he walked over.

Lance punched him on the arm while Keith laughed. “Sorry, sorry,” Shiro apologized, grinning and rubbing his arm.

“This is why I photoshop my dick pics, society will mock me ruthlessly otherwise,” Lance huffed, stalking over to the next exhibit.

“Society will mock you ruthlessly no matter what you do with your dick pics,” Keith pointed out. “Plus, Shiro doesn’t qualify as ‘society,’ he’s too weird and un-conforming.”

Lance glanced at Shiro, who smiled apologetically, before shrugging. “I guess so, I mean, who has a random white tuft for bangs.”

“Hey, I think that’s uncalled for,” Shiro objected, looking to Keith for support.

Keith nodded, “Yeah, white hair is all the rage now.”

“Okay no, you don’t get an opinion on hair, _mullet_.”

Shiro snorted, covering his mouth quickly and glancing away as Keith spun around to glare. “Well _I_ like my hair, which is all that matters.”

Lance hid his mouth with a hand. “Go back to the 80s, mullet,” He teased in a high-pitched voice.

“This is discrimination.”

Lance snickered and Shiro planted a kiss on Keith’s cheek. “Then there’s nothing we can do about it, let’s look at the other fish.”

Keith groaned in an exaggerated, overdramatic sigh, shuffling over to the front of the tank and staring at the fish. “Aren’t these tetras?” He asked after a second, squinting at the tiny striped fish.

Shiro looked up at the list of fish, nodding. “Yeah, we’re still in the freshwater part I guess.”

“Dude that’s a fucking snake,” Lance whispered from in front of the next tank over.

“What?!” Keith scrambled to get over to Lance, almost falling in the process. “Where?”

“There, on the branch,” Lance nodded in a vague direction.

“Lance, sweetie, you realize that there’s a bunch of branches in there?” Shiro asked, looking at the small tree and branches positioned throughout the tank.

“By the leaves,” Lance clarified.

“Again, there’s a bunch of those.”

“Okay here,” Lance leaned against Keith, pointing a finger to where the snake was draped over a branch in the back corner, partially hidden by leaves.

“Woah, he’s so pretty, how’d you see him?”

Lance shrugged with a smug face. “I’m just that amazing.”

Keith rolled his eyes, walking over and through the rotating door that led to an escalator to the next floor. Lance chuckled, following, only to be stopped as Keith held the door shut, trapping Lance. “Keith! Let me out!” Lance demanded, pushing on the door.

Keith smirked, not budging. “Let’s see you get out of this, Mr. Amazing.”

Lance narrowed his eyes, staring at Keith before sighing and leaning against the door. “Babe, please?” He begged with large puppy eyes.

Keith inhaled, groaning and letting go of the door. “I can’t believe I’ve gone soft,” He muttered as Lance hopped through the door.

Shiro chuckled as he followed, clapping Keith on the shoulder. “It’s alright, you lasted longer than I would have.”

The three got on the escalator, one of the first ones to be enclosed by walls. On the top, trees stretched high above and plants pressed in on the sides of the path. They all paused to stare. “This is way better than the other rainforest exhibit,” Lance mumbled.

The other two nodded in agreement, and they started walking. Lance jumped back as he noticed a small sign with a picture of a poison dart frog on it. “Woah woah, they let poison dart frogs out in here?”

“Yes Lance, they released deadly animals in a room with no divide between people and the rest of the life in here. They’re trying to kill all the visitors,” Keith responded dryly.

“It would make the exhibit realistic,” Shiro commented.

“Shut up! How was I supposed to know!”

“Common sense?”

“I’ll common sense your mom!”

“Woah,” Keith held up his hands. “Uncalled for, sir.”

There was a click above them and sprinklers turned on, gently sprinkling the room with water. “Huh,” Shiro looked up, blinking drops from his eyelashes. “It’s raining.”

“Oh my god Shiro, you’re so uncultured,” Lance sighed, Keith joining in to say, “It’s _misting_.”

Shiro stepped back, raising his hands in surrender. “Apologies, I didn’t realize it was so important.”

“Proper vocabulary is very important Shiro,” Lance said, crossing his arms while Keith nodded. “That’s why I never use any word if I don’t know what it means.”

Keith snorted, bending forward while exhaling a loud laugh. “That is such bullshit!” He laughed, covering his eyes.

“Lance, if this was a reality tv show, they’d switch to a compilation of every time you’ve used a word wrong,” Shiro stated matter-of-fact.

Lance’s face flushed, and he spun away indignantly. “You can’t ignore the truth babe,” Keith giggled, breathless.

“Maybe, but I can ignore you two.”

“Noooo,” Shiro said softly, wrapping his arms around Lance from behind. “We’d cry.”

“I can live with that.”

“Can you?” Keith hummed, slipping his arms around Lance too, effectively sandwiching him between the two.

“Ahg!” Lance pressed his hands against his eyes. “How you guys so cute, fuck.”

They both grinned, Keith stepping back. “We’re just that amazing.”

Lance rolled his eyes, shoving Keith gently and walking past him. “Yeah you are.”

“See Keith,” Shiro said, following Lance up wooden stairs. “When you say nice things about yourself Lance supports you.”

“Yeah yeah, self-love and all that, I remember,” Keith dismissed with a wave of his hand.

“Guys!” Lance shouted, spinning around and almost causing both Shiro and Keith to fall back. “Go back down the stairs!”

“What? Why?” Keith questioned, eyeing the excited Lance suspiciously.

“I’m gonna get a video of us walking up the stairs, it’ll be great,” He explained, in the middle of setting up his camera on the top step.

“Yeah, no thanks,” Keith grumbled, starting to walk back up.

Lance held out an arm, jumping up. “No, see, if you don’t do this then you won’t be in this shot and then it’ll look like you don’t care about this and then I’ll question your feelings for me and spend eternity in confusion and anxiety.”

Keith blinked, Lance smiled innocently, and Keith sighed and turned around to go back to the bottom of the stairs. Not because of Lance’s reasoning or even his adorable smile, obviously, but because it would take more effort to fight him on this.

After a brief reminder to not look at the camera, the three trooped up the stairs once more. On the landing, Shiro and Lance started counting how many different birds they could find, while Keith went up the small flight of stairs to the next landing. While Shiro joined him, Lance got into a conversation with one of the staff.

“Guess what,” Lance whispered from behind Shiro and Keith, who were leaning on a railing to watch turtles plod around.

“Chicken butt,” Shiro replied.

“You wish, no, there are sloths here,” Lance said with a grin.

The other two spun around with a gasp. “Really? Where?” Shiro asked, looking around already.

“Anywhere inside here, there’s three of them and they climb around, you gotta find them.”

They immediately lifted their faces and started walking around slowly, trying to spot one of the creatures. After a few minutes, Keith looked over to Lance. “Are you telling the truth or just want us to stumble around like idiots?”

Lance shook his head, “No they’re here, unless Susan was lying to me.”

“That could very well be a possibility,” Shiro mused, his neck starting to ache.

“Wait! Babes! I see one!” Lance called gleefully.

Shiro and Keith ran over to their boyfriend, who pointed where the sloth was hidden among leaves and vines in the canopy above. With one found, they continued their search with renewed vigor. Shiro managed to find one more, which made two out of three, so they ended their quest, satisfied. They stopped to inform Susan of their success and she congratulated them; apparently, finding two was a challenge, even for the staff.

Coming down the stairs from the landings, all that was left in the exhibit was a small bridge. Though they stopped for Lance to snap a few pictures of a parrot sleeping on a low hanging branch, they moved onto the next room, which was uneventful. Several tanks were lined up on the walls with a variety of poison dart frogs. But besides two frogs in the middle of an intimate moment, there was little of interest. What was of interest, especially to Lance, was the escalator at the end of the frog room. Both walls were mirrors all the way down.

“This is perfect! Strike a pose, babes!” Lance said, hopping onto the escalator as he turned his camera on.

“Really?” Keith groaned, “My feet hurt man, I don’t wanna do any posing on moving stairs.”

Lance looked back at his boyfriend, “Alright, then do a smile with that cute face.”

Despite the majority of the pictures being blurry from Lance wobbling as he tried to keep a leg sticking up, he did manage to get a few pictures of the three of them laughing and smiling. At the bottom of the escalator, they were let out near the edge of a large exhibit that was essentially a massive tank with ramps descending through the middle of it.

Lance giggled, hopping across the bridge that led to the walkways, and leaned over the railing and looking down through the fish and rocks. “This is so cool! Look at how deep this is!”

“Holy fuck there’s someone down there,” Keith gasped as he spotted a scuba diver winding between the coral.

“He’s probably cleaning or feeding the fish,” Shiro guessed.

“Look there’s people over there, let’s ask them,” Lance pointed towards a group of staff who were standing at the far end of the walkway before trotting over to them.

Once Lance confirmed that divers were indeed feeding the fish and got caught up in a conversation about volunteering, he realized that Shiro and Keith had wandered to the other side of the ramps and were about to head down them. Shouting goodbyes, he ran back to his boyfriends, leaning on the railing as he caught his breath. “Why’d you guys run off?”

“We were gonna go make out,” Keith answered dryly.

Lance squinted, unable to tell how serious he was. “At least tell me next time, it’d be artsy as hell to get some pics of you two passionately swapping spit in front of the fish.”

Shiro exhaled in a long, disappointed sigh. “Why do you always phrase things in the worst possible way, there’s a chance I might never make out with either of you ever again.”

Lance snickered, skipping over to the glass in front of them, now that they were on the next level of ramps. He ignored Keith’s offended gasp and objection to such a possibility, getting distracted by a small sting ray gliding by overhead.

Following the movement of several fish, they made their way around the ramps at a snail’s pace. Shiro began playing a game of peekaboo with a small yellow fish which lasted for almost ten minutes, Keith had a bonding moment with a large pufferfish, and Lance began making racing commentary on several silver fish that were chasing each other around and around the tank. They went around several times, and Lance was the last one to head down the ramp into the shark exhibit.

On the descending ramp, the walls had silhouettes of different kinds of sharks in their respective sizes. Lance tried to stop for pictures or a video, but the lighting was too dim for him to get anything good.

As the music faded into a soft eerie tune, Keith shivered, stepping closer to his boyfriends. “Why does it have to be so dark?” He whispered.

“For that sweet mood,” Lance answered, his steps filled with an extra bounce. “Why are you whispering?”

“It feels appropriate,” Keith grumbled, leaning into Shiro as he felt a strong metal arm rest around his shoulders.

“Woah,” Lance gasped as they got to the bottom of the ramp and a sawshark drifted by in front of them.

“What the hell happened to its… jaw, teeth?” Keith asked, walking up to the glass to get a better look at the long, chainsaw-like extension of the shark’s jaw.

“That’s rude, what if it said that to you?” Shiro responded, though his attention was on a nursing shark that was resting on the bottom of the tank.

“They use it to disable their prey,” Lance informed Keith from where he was standing at an information screen.

“How do they move their head that fast?” Keith walked over to read over Lance’s shoulder.

“I dunno, they must have a pretty strong neck.”

“Muscular.”

“Thick.”

“Not as thick as Gaston’s neck,” Shiro chimed in.

The three grinned at each other before dissolving into giggles.

Though Lance was more than excited to look at all the sharks, there was very little else to look at and he quickly grew bored. So, they descended once more, with Lance muttering about how many ramps there were. His complaints quickly died off however, as they entered a domed room with glass making up most of the wall and even some of the ceiling. The coral reef from the first room lay on the other side of the glass. Schools of fish darted by, sting rays floated above them, followed by black tipped reef sharks and more fish.

Lance giggled gleefully, running up to the glass, his camera on. Shiro followed at a slower pace with Keith, whose mouth had fallen open a bit. Keith dropped down to sit on the floor next to Lance and Shiro shortly joined him. It didn’t take long for Lance to wander off, trying to get a picture of everything at every angle, but Shiro and Keith stayed seated, enjoying this opportunity to rest their feet. Keith leaned on Shiro, exhaling. “This was a good idea.”

Shiro nodded, intertwining his fingers with Keith’s.

Lance, a couple feet back, smiled to himself as he looked at the picture he had just taken of his two boyfriends. Bathed in the blue of the lights and water, nearly silhouettes, they exuded peace and calm. It had been too long since Lance had seen them so relaxed.

Satisfied with the pictures he’d gotten, Lance walked over to Shiro and Keith, sitting next to Shiro to lean on him. Kids would run past them every now and then, and people would stand around them talking softly, but thanks to the time and day, the room was almost as calm as the water.

“You guys ready to move on?” Shiro asked after an uncounted length of time, though he showed no signs of moving.

“No, we haven’t been here long enough,” Lance replied.

“We’ve been here,” Shiro craned his head to get a glimpse of his watch. “For like, twenty minutes.”

“Liar, time doesn’t exist.”

“Well, if you say so it must be true. Keith, what do you think?” Shiro glanced down at his other boyfriend, promptly sucking in his breath and grinning.

“What is it?” Lance asked, leaning forward only to coo softly. “Is he asleep?”

Shiro nodded slightly, trying not to disturb Keith too much. “That is, the best part of this entire day,” Lance whispered, in the process of snapping a few pictures.

“Oh, I don’t wanna wake him,” Shiro whined.

Lance chewed his bottom lip, partly smiling. “Then don’t, we can stay here a bit longer.”

“Okay, you convinced me.”

So, they stayed there for a while longer, but eventually even Lance had to acknowledge that they should go. Shiro placed a hand Keith’s back, kissing his forehead gently and mumbling his name. Blinking bleary eyes open, Keith lifted his head, looking around slowly. “Did I fall asleep?”

“Yes, and it was adorable. I got pictures.”

“Great, how much drool was there to laugh at?” Keith grumbled, sitting up and stretching.

Shiro looked down at his shirt. “Not much, if any.”

“Well,” Keith glanced at them. “I guess that’s alright then.”

The other two smiled, and after gathering their things they stood up to leave – but not before Lance took a group selfie, of course. Climbing stairs, they arrived on the opposite side of the reef exhibit. Scuba divers were feeding the fish there too and Calypso kept playing with them, which was a great source of joy for the three boyfriends. Behind a small sitting area was a wall that projected sentences people made out of a selection of words. Lance wrote “is a shark shark?” and Keith wrote “fish fish fish fish,” while Shiro wrote “the ocean is beautiful.”

As they made their way down to the exit, Lance stopped them in front of the giftshop. “Babes we have to get a souvenir.”

“Have to?” Keith repeated, raising an eyebrow.

“ _Have_ to.”

“Nope, that only feeds the beast of capitalism,” Keith decided, crossing his arms.

“Okay fine, you won’t be a part of it then,” Lance replied instantly, heading into the giftshop.

“Rude,” Keith grumbled, following.

Keith tossed his reluctance aside quickly, joining in jokes and even posing in a few dashing hats shaped as various sea creatures.

As Shiro argued against Keith’s idea to lick the salt lamps, Lance examined the shelves of paperweights and glass figurines. “This one!” He exclaimed loudly, grabbing a paperweight and spinning around, interrupting Keith reaching out to pick up a salt lamp.

“That one?” Shiro asked, leaning in to look at the little glass cube.

“Yeah, look it’s got three dolphins, there’s three of us. It’s useful and not gaudy, won’t take up much space, and, most importantly, inexpensive.”

“Hm,” Shiro nodded. “That is true.”

Keith plucked the paperweight out of Lance’s hand, spinning it around to look at the dolphins carved into the center of the glass by some feat of technology. “This is cute.”

“Not as cute as your face,” Lance retorted, taking back the cube.

“How _dare_ you!”

Lance smirked, giggling as Keith dropped the act with a grin. “Okay, so this is good?”

“Yeah, but should we get three? For each of us?” Shiro asked, looking at the rest of the dolphin paperweights left on the shelf.

“That feels excessive,” Keith said.

“Yeah, let’s just stick to one,” Lance agreed.

“Sounds good, who’ll keep it then?”

“Shiro is the one with the desk job, you’d probably get the most use out of it,” Lance mused, tapping his chin. “If you kept it at your job Keith, it might get broken from all those car parts you throw all over the place. And I don’t use paperweights, just leave them on a shelf to get dusty.”

“So, Shiro gets it?” Keith asked.

“If you’re good with it, sure,” Lance nodded, looking between the two.

Keith nodded in agreement and Shiro smiled, rubbing his neck. “I’ll make sure not to lose it then.”

“Good, cause you know, if you do, that means our relationship will fail,” Lance teased, heading towards the registers.

“Don’t say that, I’ll cry,” Shiro protested, pausing suddenly. “Wait, Lance, you’re not planning to pay?”

Lance glanced down at the glass cube in his hand. “Well, yeah, it was my idea.”

Keith shook his head. “No, this is for all of us, we’re gonna chip in.”

Lance sighed loudly but didn’t argue. Splitting the price, they continued to the register and left.

Once outside, they stopped to sit down on a bench and discuss their next move. They had decided before leaving for this trip that they would get dinner before going home, but now the question was where.

“What about Korean barbeque?” Keith suggested, resting his elbows on his knees.

“That sounds great,” Shiro sighed with a smile. “What do you think, Lance?”

Lance shrugged. “I’ve never had it.”

“What?!” Keith jerked up.

“What do you mean what? I grew up in Cuba, there’s not exactly an abundance of Korean food,” Lance explained indignantly, crossing his arms.

“Okay, so, we’re doing that then,” Shiro announced, pulling out his phone, but pausing to glance at Lance. “Is that cool?”

Lance nodded, leaning back on the bench. “Sure, I like meat.”

Shiro nodded and proceeded to look up nearby Korean barbeques.

The closest one he found was a fifteen-minute drive away, and after some debate they decided to get an Uber there. They headed over to the nearest parking lot, sitting on a large block of cement that was supposed to be some kind of decoration while they waited. Lance made sure to make a short video, which continued into the car once their Uber arrived.

At the restaurant, Shiro and Keith explained the different options to Lance, and each of them picked out one thing to order.

“So?” Shiro asked as Lance chewed his first bite of the pork he’d ordered.

Lance swallowed, pursing his lips. “I think I like the rice more.”

Keith dropped a piece of meat from his choice onto Lance’s small plate. “Try that.”

“That’s really good,” Lance spoke around the mouthful of meat, rice, and other bits of food that added to the flavor.

Keith grinned, “Right?”

“Okay, try the beef now,” Shiro offered a piece of his food.

After chewing thoughtfully, Lance nodded. “I like it, but Keith’s was better.”

Keith nudged Shiro smugly, and they began eating, sharing the different meats. Lance had fun combining the different toppings, though there were a few times that he made a horrible choice of combinations and struggled to keep the mouthful down.

When they had cleared all the plates and bowls, the three split the cost again and headed out. As Keith started to ask if they should call another Uber, Lance interrupted. “Wait! This is right by graffiti alley!”

“Graffiti what?” Keith looked at Lance with a frown.

“Graffiti alley, it’s got like, a shit ton of graffiti all over the place, it’s super popular and awesome.”

“Okay, do you wanna go there then?” Shiro asked.

Lance nodded eagerly, and they started to walk around the small line of stores they were in front of, with Lance in the lead. On the small street directly behind the restaurant was the alleyway, that was indeed completely covered in graffiti. The ground and walls of the bordering buildings were coated in layers of spray paint, from simple symbols and phrases to massive, complex works of art. They didn’t stay long, as there wasn’t much to do besides take pictures, and with the sun starting to set they thought it’d be better to continue their trip.

Keith suggested that they stop at the art store that was down the block, which he’d forgotten he had seen until they were about to get an Uber. So, they all trooped down the sidewalk with Lance trying to teach the other two how to pose for photos without looking awkward. He was mildly successful with Shiro, but Keith continued to be as stiff as an uncooked piece of spaghetti.

Once they entered the art store, the store clerk informed them that they’d be closing in a few minutes, so they only did a quick lap between a few of the racks of supplies and paint splattered walls before awkwardly shuffling out.

“Dude that place was so awesome, I’ve gotta go back,” Keith gushed, hopping over a large crack in the sidewalk.

“Same! I could get into art if I got stuff from there, talk about aesthetic,” Lance enthused.

Shiro smiled, following the two as they walked down the sidewalk with no destination. “Hey uh, where are you guys going?” He eventually asked, chuckling as they stopped and glanced back with confusion.

“Good question,” Lance looked over to Keith who shrugged.

“Do you wanna go back now?” Shiro asked.

“I want ice cream,” Keith stated.

“Didn’t you wanna go home like, right after we finished dinner?” Lance pointed out, narrowing his eyes.

“Yes, but that was before we went to the graffiti alley and art store.”

Lance sighed, rolling his eyes dramatically. “Now I want ice cream too!”

They both turned to look at Shiro, who, with great reluctance, pulled out his phone. “There’s a Baskin Robins twenty minutes away?”

“Perfect! Time for dessert!” Lance clapped, gesturing for Shiro to step in front of them. “Lead the way.”

All three of them believed this was a perfectly reasonable idea. They had been walking all day, what was a few more minutes? They might have made a different decision though, if anyone had noticed that the time estimate to get to their destination was for how long it would take to drive there.

Thirty minutes into their journey, Keith and Lance took to voicing their complaints. “I think it’s about to rain, Shiro, you said twenty minutes,” Lance huffed. “We should go back.”

“It’d be even longer to go back now,” Keith responded, holding out a hand to catch the spattering of raindrops. “We’d- oh my god, is that an elephant? What is- oh that’s a horse,” He giggled.

“An elephant? Keith babe, I’m dying are you blind? That’s a horse!” Lance laughed, watching the horse pulling a food cart trot closer and pass them.

“Shut up! It’s dark and I saw the hooves!”

The two argued for a couple minutes longer before the complaining started up again. “My feet hurt, Shiro, why’d you lie to us?” Lance called to their boyfriend who was several feet ahead.

“There’s only like, twenty minutes left to walk,” Shiro answered, pausing for his boyfriends to catch up.

“We’re going to drown in this storm,” Keith sighed.

Lance nodded. “I love you, but you’ve brought us to our death.”

Shiro sighed, looking at an imaginary camera. “It’s barely drizzling, I think you’ll make it.”

“Will we? Will we, Shiro?” Keith asked, stopping to stretch and shake out his feet.

“If you don’t, I promise I will get very choked up.”

“Will there be tears?” Lance asked with a grin.

“Maybe, there just might be,” Shiro responded.

“I’d say that’s fair then, Keith?”

“Hm,” Keith tapped his chin, “Yeah, as long as you promise there might be tears.”

Shiro nodded, “Oh definitely, I swear there is a chance of tears.”

“Alright then, rainy with a chance of death and tears sounds like a good deal. Let’s go get that ice cream,” He declared, starting to walk again.

With a small burst of renewed energy, they continued their trek. It wasn’t long though, until Lance and Keith fell behind Shiro, who had an unnatural ability to keep a fast pace for prolonged periods of time. Normally, this wasn’t a problem for Lance and Keith, but after being on their feet for the entire day, speed was a struggle.

Lance groaned, bumping into Keith slightly. “Are we almost there?”

Shiro glanced down at his phone, a small speck of light as far as Lance and Keith could tell. “Yeah, should only be a couple minutes!”

“Thank god, I’m never trusting Shiro’s directions again.”

Keith nodded. “That sounds like a completely fair and reasonable decision, Shiro’s history of providing accurate and good directions in the past are irrelevant after this.”

Lance chuckled. “Exactly.”

When they spotted the Baskin Robins, there was much rejoicing. Lance pumped the air once and Keith gave a quiet “woohoo.” Crossing the street, they entered the small ice cream shop and Lance and Keith bought strawberry ice cream to split, while Shiro sat down heavily to rest.

“I’m thinking,” Shiro said after a few minutes of silence. “That we should call an Uber to get us back.”

Lance nodded, pulling his spoon out of his mouth with a soft pop. “I’m down. I have no idea where the light rail is from here, or if it’s still running.”

“Why wouldn’t it be? It’s only,” Keith twisted around to squint at a clock by the door. “Oh, nine, okay yeah maybe not. I agree with this plan then.”

Shiro nodded. “Alright, cool. I want to get a cookie before we leave though, there’s an Insomnia Cookies across the street, we can wait in there after you two finish.”

Lance and Keith nodded and returned to their ice cream. Once done, they headed over to the late-night cookie supplier. Keith immediately flopped down into one of the available cushioned seats, while Lance followed Shiro to the register.

“Oh my god, they deliver?” Lance gasped, noticing a sign propped up on the counter.

“Yeah, this place is a blessing.”

“Thank god there’s none close to me, I’d spend all my money getting cookies brought to my dorm at 3 am.”

Shiro eyed Lance. “There is one close to VU though.”

“What?!” Lance pulled out his phone to check the locations while Shiro ordered. “Shiro! Why’d you tell me this! I’ll be ruined!”

Shiro turned around, just finished paying and already holding a cookie in his mouth. “I’ll bring you homemade cookies.”

Lance inhaled, grinning and placed a kiss on Shiro’s cheek. “You’re my bank account’s savior.”

“Who ever said I wouldn’t charge you?”

“Good point, I can pay you in hand jobs?”

Shiro sputtered, trying not to spray crumbs everywhere, and looked around. There weren’t many people in there with them, but Lance had made no attempt to lower his voice and one or two people were giving them looks. Lance chuckled and nudged him. “I’m kidding, sort of.”

Shiro rolled his eyes. “Sure babe.”

Lance squinted as Shiro sat down in the chair next to Keith, looking at the other seats that were currently occupied. “Who’s gonna let me sit on their lap?” He asked, crossing his arms.

Shiro blinked, glancing around then scooted forward to the edge of his seat. “You can sit behind me.”

Lance grinned, jumping at the offer and sliding down in the space between Shiro and the back of the chair. He rested his feet on the arm of Keith’s seat, who was also sitting sideways. “So,” Lance said, making eye contact with Keith. “Come here often?”

In response, Keith set down his phone and silently reached over to untie one of Lance’s shoes. As Lance gasped in offense, Shiro leaned over to untie Keith’s shoe in revenge. Keith looked down at the untied sneaker then back to Shiro. “If you think I’m gonna retie that, you’re fucking wrong.”

“You’re right, I’m sorry,” Shiro responded, retying the shoe.

There was a brief moment where they all stared at each other before bursting into laughter.

Lance rested his head on Shiro’s back, catching his breath. “This was really fun,” Keith sighed, stretching and closing his eyes in content.

“Agreed, it was a great idea Lance.”

Lance grinned. “I’m full of great ideas, here’s another one, you two are the best.”

“Does that count as an idea?” Keith asked, squinting at the ceiling.

“Don’t question me.”

Shiro chuckled, leaning back on Lance who squeaked at the increasing pressure. “The Uber should be here soon, do you guys wanna just come back to my place? It’d be cheaper and faster.”

“Hell yeah, take us away to your lair,” Lance said immediately, laughing as Shiro leaned on him more.

“I’m down for the lair,” Keith said, grinning as Shiro narrowed his eyes at him.

Once the Uber got there, they all piled in and spent most of the car ride in silence, resting against each other.

At Shiro’s apartment, they congregated in the bedroom, nibbling on a few snacks. Shiro shared some pajamas, since neither Lance or Keith had planned to stay over and had no clothes to sleep in. So, Lance wore some short shorts he had forgotten he’d left at Shiro’s along with one of Shiro’s tank tops, while Keith wore a large pajama shirt and Shiro wore the matching bottoms.

Lance stretched out on his back, tossing a gummy snack into his mouth and watching Shiro do his nightly stretch routine. “I have no idea how you still have energy for that, but I’m appreciating the view.”

Shiro looked back from his current position. “I don’t think I could sleep if I skipped this.”

“Addict,” Keith commented, dropping down across Lance’s stomach.

“Talk about the pot calling the kettle black,” Lance said, reaching out a hand to mess with Keith’s hair.

“Alright,” Shiro said after a moment, standing up. “You guys ready to sleep?”

Keith nodded, and Lance swallowed the last gummy before tossing the wrapper into the trash bin nearby and rolling over, to Keith’s disappointment. “Yeah, we’re good, hit the lights.”

After turning off the lights, Shiro climbed into bed, Lance and Keith shifting around to make room. They didn’t talk, didn’t feel a need to. With the streetlights and moon peeking through the blinds, the three curled up against each other, glad to finally be able to rest after moving around so much. Their breathing quickly synced up as they each dropped off into sleep, time freezing until morning.

**Author's Note:**

> Once again, I love what my artists did! Please check out their tumblrs @tough-girl-freed (first image) and @nevermoree-the-raven (last two images)


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